A litmus test of fairness

For example, lay people think that the sickest patients and those on waiting lists should be treated first, while ethicists - and to some degree medical professionals - tend to have a different set of priorities. This is the conclusion of a study by ETH researchers investigating the principles that apply to the fair allocation of scarce medical resources. Donor organs are in very short supply. In Switzerland, for example, over 1,140 people are waiting to receive a new kidney. In the first half of 2016, however, only 77 patients were given a transplant. In an attempt to tackle this shortfall, the Federal Office of Public Health has just launched a public campaign to encourage citizens to become organ donors. The shortage of critical medical resources inevitably raises the question: How should they be fairly allocated? Ethicists have developed criteria that provide a sort of moral compass to ensure the fairest possible allocation.